SARADA: Spring Lightning
by TheFicusWithSuperpowers
Summary: Twelve years ago, Karin arrived at Naruto's door with a baby and the story of its parents' deaths. Not for a moment in so many years had he believed in that. No matter how devastated she is by the truth, or scared for the journey that lies ahead of her, Sarada Uchiha must believe in her powers, in her friends, in her parents and, most importantly, in herself.
1. prologue

**A/N:** Hello! This is my first time writing something in the Naruto universe. There's this story that I'd love to tell, only that I don't know whether anybody would be interested. It's takes off around the blank period when Sakura was travelling with Sasuke and pregnant and continues in a different storyline from the Boruto one. I'm leaving you the prologue here, so please tell me whether you'd like to see what happens and maybe even leave me a tip or an opinion regarding the story and my writing! ENJOY!

* * *

 **SPRING LIGHTNING - SARADA**

 _ **prologue**_

 _twelve years ago...  
_

When the clouds covered the moon, the entire world was left in darkness. Naruto didn't have a good feeling about it, he hadn't had one for the past week, as if something was going on and he didn't know about it. He was lying in bed, trying and failing to get some sleep, his mind wandering through any thought. It wasn't the right time for him to remember the best and the worst of times, his life, the year at the Academy, Team 7, Sasuke and Sakura - _where were they now?_ They had been together, travelling for a year or even more, and hadn't sent any message yet. Sometimes, he joked that they'd disappeared.

Then he heard a strong noise coming from downstairs. Somebody was knocking at the door, loud enough to wake Hinata, who had been sleeping next to him. Naruto wondered who could've been in the middle of the night and whether it was related to his bad feeling. On their way down to open the door, he thought he heard a baby's cries and clenched his fists.

When he opened the door, he saw the redheaded woman with an infant in her hands.

"You are..." he started, recognising her.

Hinata moved before he did, to take the woman in and help her with the child. As she was holding him or her carefully, the image of their soon to be born baby flashing before his eyes. The doctors said that it'd happen in less than two months... Chasing these beautiful thoughts away, he closed the door behind the two women and the child and went with them in the living-room.

"...Karin, yes..." the woman muttered, as she entered, answering Naruto's exclamation.

"You used to work with Sasuke years ago. So why are you here? How did you know to come here?" the yellow-haired ninja burst out. Things didn't make any sense to him. Besides, when he looked at Karin, only bad memories came back to him - when Sasuke had gone rogue and wanted to destroy Konoha and how hard it was to bring that idiot back from the darkness that he had surrounded himself with.

She looked at him, the bags under her red eyes proof of how much she'd cried on her way there. "You're _their_ best-friend. I had to find you. I sensed your chakra." Karin didn't seem hurt, but hesitated to say anything further for a few minutes, releasing a long and pained sigh. Something was not okay, that much he could realize as well. "This is their child, Sasuke-kun and Sakura's baby girl. I've been told to bring her here."

"What about them?"

The redheaded woman - it was just like his mother's - was holding back the tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes. "They're dead."

Naruto first thought she was joking. He couldn't believe it. He'd rather believe that the sky was yellow, that Kaguya was back, that Akatsuki were back, that Pain was back. He'd rather believe that Orochimaru had always been in fact a woman or that ramen was toxic. But he couldn't believe that Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha were... _dead_. Their names and that word weren't fit to be used in the same sentence. "That... can't... be..."

He looked at Hinata, who had put a hand over her mouth, as tears went down her face as well, and unconsciously the other on her stomach, as if the little guy in there could make everything be just a bad dream. It wasn't, no matter how much Naruto hated it. He clenched his fists to hit something, anything, the first thing that appeared before his eyes, but found himself unable to. Life had drained from him.

He just couldn't bring himself to believe that.

"How is that possible?" Hinata asked. She wouldn't admit it, but she'd always been braver and stronger than him, to close her eyes and be rational even when the worst of all possible news had come to her ears. He wouldn't do that, he'd scream, he'd shout, he'd hit something, create a thousand shadow clones and take them down one by one to release the anger.

Karin started telling them the story. "I don't know much, just that they were attacked on their way to our hide-out - they were coming so they could have their baby. Sasuke-kun never made it there, just Sakura. She gave birth, then went back after him. They never returned. After a few days, I sent Juugo out to search for them."

Naruto felt like he was being told a bad fairy tale. "What did he say?"

The redhead shook her head. "Nothing. After a week, Suigetsu found him dead in the woods."

"What about Orochimaru? What does he have to say about this?"

"He shed a tear or two but said nothing. But I can assure you that he hasn't got any part in that."

Naruto frowned. "How am I supposed to trust that bastard? Ya know, he..."

Karin interrupted and shot him a cold glare. "Don't trust him, but trust me, who Sasuke-kun and Sakura have entrusted their baby to."

"So what do we do?" Hinata asked the redhead.

Turning to the yellow-haired ninja's wife, she answered. "Take care of the baby."

"What about Sasuke and Sakura-chan?" Naruto continued.

Karin hesitated. "I don't know. You can search for them further... You can do nothing... I don't know. Besides, my job was to deliver the baby to Uzumaki Naruto. I have to go now." She stood from her place and headed for the door.

Hinata ran after her. "Wait, Karin-san, haven't they told you her name... the baby's name?"

The other woman nodded. "It's Sarada. Sarada Uchiha. It sounds good, don't you think?" That was the last thing she said before leaving. There wasn't anything else to be said anyways. Karin left the Uzumaki residence, just as rain started to fall down and flood the Leaf Village. The sky was crying... So did Naruto for the rest of the night.

* * *

As soon as the sun rose on the sky, the yellow-haired ninja made his way to the Hokage Office with the baby. Lord Sixth was already there, stuck in paperwork and barely breathing. He knew that wasn't the kind of life Kakashi Hatake, his former sensei, would've wanted. Missions, action, reading those novels of his, something actually happening, were more appealing than a desk and tons of paper. He greeted Naruto with a smile, then noticed the baby and frowned. "You should've announced that Hinata has already..."

The look on his former student's face stopped him from continuing.

"What happened?"

Naruto looked pained as he answered that question. "This baby... it's Sasuke and Sakura-chan's. They're gone." And he told Lord Sixth what Karin had said the night before and the decision he and Hinata had made. Kakashi had been in ANBU for a while and knew the Shinobi code better than anybody in the Village, therefore, Naruto believed, it was easy for him to hide under that mask, deep inside his soul, all the pain and the sadness and the anger when he had the story.

"I'll have people search them. I don't believe it..."

"Ya know, Kakashi-sensei, me neither..."


	2. Uzumaki Sarada

**A/N:** Thanks a lot for the response for the prologue (I had 17 notifications and this is huge for me!). I didn't expect that and I am incredibly thankful. So, here I am, actually starting this story. Don't forget to leave me your opinion regarding the story! Thanks a lot! And ENJOY!

* * *

 **Spring Lightning**

 _ **chapter one - Uzumaki Sarada**_

She graduated the Academy earlier than most students, her forehead protector proved that, she mastered all techniques they had been taught, she had the highest grades in her class, she knew ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu at an advanced level, she had a perfect chakra control - praised by all ninjas that ever saw her, she was powerful, but people still talked behind her back. _Those black and cold eyes... It's a trap for us all to fall in_... _The truth about her..._

The truth about Sarada was that she had long realized she wasn't Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki's child. That was what she had been led to believe, but they never really confirmed. She was raven-haired and had black eyes, unlike the couple. Lord Seventh was blonde and had blue eyes, and Lady Hinata may have been dark-haired, but she had the Byakugan. She wasn't theirs. Besides, they had Boruto who was only two or three months younger than her.

But she never asked them. She couldn't bear getting a real answer.

The memory of the time she came home from the Academy, after the graduation exams, with the forehead protector tied around her arm was still pretty clear in her mind. She was so happy that she found Naruto home at that moment. As he congratulated her, he removed the protector from its place and helped her put it on her forehead. "It's better like this. In fact, you remind me of one of my teammates..."

Sarada never knew who he was talking about... Naruto never told her stories of his adventures when he was her age. He'd tell Boruto and he'd tell even Himawari. But he wouldn't tell her and that frustrated the young girl. She felt like nobody's...

* * *

"Sarada, Boruto, can you take these up to Mom and Dad's room?" Hinata asked the two twelve-year olds. The yellow-haired boy was playing a game and made a funny face as he nodded, while the girl was reading. They both stood up and took the basket full of newly-washed clothes upstairs. Since he became Hokage, Naruto was rarely coming home. Boruto seemed to mind that more than she did. She understood the responsiblities of a Hokage, though there were times when she wished she had something to talk to.

She noticed the photos on Naruto's desk. One was with him, Hinata, Boruto and Himawari - she had been sick the day they took it. Another one included her too. She was so different from them. _How could they lie that she was theirs?_ And a third one was an old photograph of his own parents, Lord Fourth Minato Namikaze and Lady Kushina Uzumaki. The last one was from his youth, his former team. In the picture there was Lord Seventh, Lord Sixth, Kakashi Hatake, who had been his sensei, and two other ninjas whose names she didn't know. There was a girl with blue hair and yellow eyes, and a guy with sandy blonde hair, red eyes and a huge smile on his face. She's never seen those people and assumed they might've died during the War.

That was another thing people wouldn't talk to her about.

As her _brother_ helped her put the clothes in the wardrobe, Sarada felt something weird in that room. She had been there before, but had felt nothing until then. Boruto didn't notice and exited his parents' room, leaving her behind. There was some kind of illusion there. She had recently improved her genjutsu skills, that was why she was finally able to sense it. "Release."

Sarada couldn't see anything change in the room. Anyways, why would Lord Seventh put a genjutsu in his own room? She left, half relieved, half disappointed. It might've been her imagination.

* * *

Naruto released a long sigh. He was finally home after a tiring day at the Hokage Office - after a few years working there he understood why Kakashi-sensei had him take his place after just fifteen years. Tsunade, who had been the Fifth Hokage during the War, lasted less, five or so years. Before her... it was his dad. Naruto wasn't sure how long he had been the village's leader. And before that there came Lord Third; he'd held that position for almost his entire life. The yellow-haired ninja wondered how long he'd last - he hoped for more than his latter predecessors.

"Welcome home," Hinata told him, smiling in that unique and sweet way of hers.

He grinned and kissed her, as he climbed up the stairs with her, heading for their room. He heard music coming from Boruto's and noticed the lights turned off in Himawari's - she must have already gone to sleep. The door to Sarada's room was ajar and he spotted her reading. She did love doing that.

As soon as he closed the door behind Hinata and himself, he noticed. The genjutsu he'd put had been dispelled. An expression of terror and pain appeared on his face when his eyes focused on the photos on his desk. Instead of the faces of the unknown ninjas whose dead bodies had been found on the battlefield, those of his real teammates were there. It was their old photo, the first of Team 7. He was smiling as he stood next to Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke and Sakura. It broke his heart seeing the photo... If anybody asked him, the illusion was for Sarada, so she wouldn't find out about the Uchiha couple, but, in fact, it was for him too. Karin had said they were dead and even if he didn't want to believe it, it hurt...

Then it hit him.

If the genjutsu was gone, then somebody had released it. Hinata wouldn't have - she knew about it, Boruto and Himawari weren't skilled enough to even sense it. The obvious answer was on his lips before he knew it. "Sarada..." She must've seen it. She must've realized.

"Hinata," the Orange Hokage called, turning to his wife. She nodded approvingly, as if she had read his mind. Naruto reached for the photograph, took it and headed for the raven-haired child's room.

Sarada was reading, just like minutes before, focused on her book. It must have been a surprise to see him and Hinata enter, serious expression on their faces. "What's going on? Has anything happened?"

Naruto sighed. "You've been to my room and dispelled the genjutsu there, right? So, I guess you saw the real picture behind the illusion."

The young girl looked at him surprised. She hadn't noticed anything changed then, but now looking at the photograph in Naruto's hand she saw a complete different image than she'd known. His teammates' looks had changed. The girl had pink hair and green eyes, like a version of herself with different hair and eye colors. Those colors belonged to the raven-haired and black-eyed guy in the picture. They were the Uzumaki Naruto's real teammates from his youth, the one he never talked about when she was around, the ones she wasn't supposed to ever see. "Who are those people?"

Seeing Naruto hesitate, Hinata started talking. "Sarada-chan, we believe you must've suspected that we're not..." Her voice broke before finishing. It hurt, having to tell a child something like that hurt.

"...that you're no my parents, yes," the girl continued. "I just hoped I was wrong. Even so, who are those people?"

The yellow-haired ninja cleared his throat before answering. "His name was Sasuke Uchiha and the girl used to be Sakura Haruno before she married him. Sasuke and Sakura Uchiha, they're your real parents."

Sarada was unable to process all that. _So it was all a lie... All those people and their mocking words were right..._ She was the child of a couple, two ninjas, that never wanted to know her, that abandoned her, that perhaps didn't even want her. She was barely holding the tears. "Where are they? Why did they leave me?"

"Sarada! They didn't leave you. They're just... gone" Naruto looked down, pained. He raised his head again only when Hinata took his hand and pointed to the girl. He saw red. He saw that red eye color that he so much missed. Sarada, Sasuke and Sakura's daughter, looked at him, the Sharingan sparkling, as power flowed through her.

"But you don't believe that," she told him.

The Orange Hokage grinned. "I guess so. Nobody that knows believes it."

"Can I ask you one thing? Why did you pretend being my family?"

"Your name is Sarada Uchiha. You are an Uchiha and if bad people found out, they'd come after you. Besides, we don't know for sure how your parents disappeared. If it was somebody's doing, then there's a chance that person could come after you," Naruto explained.

"And we also love you," Hinata added. And somehow that was all Sarada needed to know. So she urged Lord Seventh to start searching again. There were even less chances of finding something, anything, twelve years after, but she couldn't give up. Maybe if she found them, she'd find her place in the world, the place she belonged to.


	3. Uchiha

**A/N:** Thanks for all the love and the followings, favorites, reviews! You are the best! Hope you enjoy this chapter as well!

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF NARUTO SHIPPUDEN 475? For me, it was like the best thing I've come across this entire week.

To answer a guest question: I'm starting high school (again...) on Monday, which means I won't be able to write as frequntly as until now. I'll be trying to update once a week, I don't know where. I don't plan to make this story very long anyways. So please bear with me in this journey! Enjoy!

* * *

 **SARADA: Spring Lightning**

 _ **chapter two - Uchiha**_

Maybe if she found those people that Lord Seventh was saying were her parents, maybe then, she'd have a place to belong to. She couldn't know. She had to try. That's why she turned again to Naruto and Hinata, before they left her room, and uttered with her most confident voice, "I want to find them. We must find them."

The chances were so low. They almost didn't even exist. But she had to hope. She had to hope.

Naruto nodded, a smile invading his face. "We'll find them. Believe it!"

He turned again to leave, but Sarada stopped them. "Lord Seventh... there's something I'd like to ask you. Please stay..." She didn't know what force drove her to want to ask him what she had in mind to, but there was no other way but do it. After twelve years in which she'd known nothing about her true origin, after twelve years in which she'd lived in a lie, Sarada thought she deserved some answers, something more than just a promise to keep fighting for those disappeared ninjas... _Sasuke and Sarada Uchiha..._

He nodded to Hinata, who smiled to the young girl and wished her a goodnight, leaving and closing the door after herself. "What is it, Sarada?"

"My parents... who were, are they? I mean, how were, are they like?" she asked.

Naruto raised his eyebrows and looked surprised at her. He sat next to her on her bed and smiled as he thought of a good answer. There were so many things to be said and things that she should've been told, had the circumstances been different. Sarada was just like he had been - an orphan, pushed away by all the villagers that knew nothing of her heritage - it didn't matter that the Hokage himself was posing as her father... And the only way he thought of protecting her from whoever might've attacked Sasuke and Sakura was the same as how he had been protected, by hiding the truth. Even so, he and Hinata had made sure there would always be someone to wait her home with greetings full of love and a warm meal.

Her eyes, black again, told him of her impatience. It was time he finally told her something real about his former teammates. "Well... Sasuke and Sakura-chan... They were at the top of the class, just like me. Sakura-chan has always been so smart and Sasuke... there was nothing he couldn't do... That's why you're just like them, smart and strong, Sarada."

Her fists were clenched and shaking.

"When we graduated Academy, we were put in the same team, and Lord Sixth became our sensei. We all had come from different places and none of us, not even Kakashi-sensei believed we'd get along, but we did. Ya know, Team 7 was the family I had never had at that time and somehow your father felt the same. He never admitted but I was his best-friend and so he was to me. And Sakura-chan... being with us motivated her to fight and be strong, get stronger. The last time I'd seen her, she was the strongest kunoichi in the world. Believe it!"

Sarada's eyes sparkled with pride. It was her mother Naruto was describing. Then it hit her, it was the mother she'd never got the chance to meet that he was describing. It hurt. It hurt having such a mother and not getting the chance of knowing her. She wished she had. She wished she had time with both of them, so they'd teach her techniques and help her with homework or help her train.

"You father, well, if I hadn't been chosen for Hokage, he would've. He's the most powerful ninja the world has known, besides me, of course. Maybe that's why I don't believe he's dead. And knowing Sakura-chan, I don't believe she's dead either. They aren't the kind to go down without a fight. I know that better than anybody. I know how much she's fought for him. And I know how much she's endured and how strong she's aimed to become. Something really bad had happened to Sasuke when he was a kid and all his younger years he'd fought to avenge the people he'd lost. He got stronger, motivated by revenge. That's bad, really bad. And at some point we had to fight, me against him. But, you know, I tried to knocked some sense into him so he'd be able to see..."

"To see what?" Sarada inquired.

Naruto sighed. "That there are other things that matter more... I may have influenced him one way or another, but Sakura-chan changed him. They've always had something special. Most girls at the Academy liked him, but he couldn't care less about them. After we've been put in the same team, he'd always make sure she was ok. When somebody had hurt her really bad once, he broke the guy's arms. When a boy, jinchuuriki as I am, attacked the three of us during the Chunin Exams, he fought with all his might to protect her. And she'd saved him, from darkness, from loneliness, from himself. That idiot couldn't even see he loved her... Or he may have noticed, but thought he didn't deserve her... I don't know."

"So, was he a bad guy?"

The Orange Hokage shook his head. "No. Everything he's done was for what he'd believed in."

Sarada released a relieved sigh.

"Does any of what I've said make sense?"

She nodded. "They seem like nice people."

"They're the best. Believe it!"

And the young Uchiha believe him. _Uchiha... Uchiha Sarada..._ That seemed just perfect.


	4. Shannaro

**A/N:** Thanks again and again for all the love! It means so much to me. Sorry for the delay! Just a quick mention that, as you might've notice, the point-of-view changes from one sub-chapter and sometimes from one paragraph to another. This is how I write it and how I believe this story works. Bear with me! Thanks for understanding! Please follow this story further and enjoy this chapter!

* * *

 **SARADA: Spring Lightning  
**

 _ **chapter three - Shannaro**_

"You'll have to train a lot, ya know?"

Sarada nodded.

The next day, he brought her to some place in the woods, a training spot. Three pillars of rotten wood stood before them, memories full of joy and nostalgia coming back to Naruto as he went closer. The wind was blowing, throwing leaves straight to Sarada's face. They circles around her then flew to some other place, disappearing in sight. It was then that she noticed they weren't alone.

Before the two proudly a blonde-haired woman, a large front facing them, and a purple rhombus on her forehead. When Sarada thought better she remembered she'd learnt about that once, about the Byakugou, the Strength of a Hundred Seal, the technique to store great amounts of chakra over long periods of time, and she'd learnt about the one who created and perfected it... the Legendary Sannin Tsunade, granddaughter of the First Hokage, distantly-related to Lord Seventh... _Tsunade_...

"I almost thought you wouldn't be coming... Naruto" she started. Despite her youthful appearence, her voice was shaking, like an old woman's. Calculating in her mind, the young _Uchiha_ realized that Tsunade must've been over seventy. She looked well, though, ready to break a mountain in two. "So this is the girl..."

Naruto lowered his head in a nod. "I'm counting on you, Tsunade-baa-chan..."

"Wait! You're not training me," the young girl turned to him.

He shook his head. "No, I've work at the Office. Believe it, though, there's nobody better than Tsunade-baa-chan to help you with all this. Train with her, Sarada, and surpass her. You'd be the second to do that..." Naruto forced a smile... What he'd just said hurt him a bit, remembering... all those memories were so full of joy and nostalgia...

"Who was the first?"

"Sakura..." Tsunade answered, her mouth in a thin smile.

* * *

"Jeez," Sarada yelled. It's been less than an hour since Tsunade had first launched an attack at her. She was trying to give her an example of how the chakra-fueled taijutsu worked, like she must've done with her mother years before. Even so, two or three trees nearly fell on her, the ground under her cracked in small pieces and one punch nearly hit her in the stomach.

Tsunade was gasping between attacks; she was getting older, apparently.

"You see what I'm trying to do, focusing the chakra in one point and releasing it at once with the fist? Concentrate."

But it wasn't that easy from the first try, the woman should've realized. Even so, Sakura had mastered it within months, her daughter had to do it faster. The look of determination in the girl's eyes proved that. It was hard without the walk-through that Tsunade's given the pink-haired kunoichi fifteen years ago, it was hard skipping over the stages they've both gone through to master the technique. But there was no time. For some reason there was no time to lose. Twelve years had passed and Naruto, _that idiot_ , couldn't wait a few more months... But he must've been just as impatient as the young girl to find those two.

Tsunade figured out that they've disappeared after Sakura'd stopped sending messages to Konoha. She randomly caught a discussion between Kakashi and Naruto months after the last letter, weeks after the raven-haired baby appeared at the Uzumaki's - she had also been one of the very few who had known everyhing from the beginning, given her important status to the village and her caring nature towards her pink-haired former student. It'd always been a thing between her, the Uzumakis, Kakashi and Nara Shikamaru.

Sarada couldn't do it... at first. She couldn't break any tree or make any crack in the ground, she could barely hit in the right spot, her dexterity lower than the blonde woman had expected. Even so... Even so... Tsunade could sense chakra gathering in the girl's hand. It wasn't much, but it was the start of something. It took her years to do it. And Sakura couldn't do it either... Tsunade's always had this belief, that Sakura's child, especially with _that Uchiha_ , would be some sort of prodigy. It confirmed it.

* * *

"Jeez."

It must've hurt the tree as well, just as badly as pain shot through her arm.

"Don't say _Jeez_. It doesn't suit you, ya know," a blonde-haired ninja started, coming out of the woods. Naruto wouldn't admit but he'd been watching for some time. Sarada was working hard...

"What does, ya know? I've no idea, believe it!" Sarada replied, the corners of her mouth rising in a quick smile, as she pointed out Lord Seventh's own phrases. Having thought of him as family for so many years, she'd grown used to it and was extremely happy she didn't get one too, unlike Boruto...

Naruto laughed. " _Usuratonkachi_..." There was both happiness and sadness in that word...

Sarada frowned. "What?"

He shook his head. That wasn't right either. That thing was not even for Sakura-chan. It was something between him and Sasuke, the connection, the friendship, the rivalry, the brotherhood. _Usuratonkachi_... Sasuke'd always had his dorky and weird ways of expressing something. Sakura and Kakashi-sensei had realized it from the beginning, but it took Naruto a while to do that too. The forehead poke he'd often do to Sakura, that was that _bastard_ 's way of telling her important things. Calling him _Usuratonkachi_ , being that _thin hammer_ , it was Sasuke's way of acknowledging Naruto as his comrade, rival, friend and almost... brother. _What a bastard, to leave so soon... And leave his kid behind... And leave him behind..._

Tsunade shrugged. "I don't have time for that. I'm meeting you tomorrow, same hour." Her plans for the next day involved some medical-nin. It was perhaps the best way to teach the young girl how to focus chakra to one point in her body and, besides, no matter how much the woman wished it wasn't, it might prove necessary sometime later... She had a feeling, the feeling she hadn't felt in such a long while, that the ending of it all... wasn't going to be good at all... It'd be as if reality would bend and what that _Uchiha_ girl'd known her entire life will disappear... Not a good feeling, not a bad feeling, just a mixed-blessing.

Both the Orange Hokage and the raven-haired genin looked at her.

She turned around on her heels and left. " _Shannaro..._ " Tsunade added as she parted. _She's Sakura's daughter. Seems just perfect. Shannaro..._


	5. Sharingan

**A/N:** Hello, guys! Thanks for every single review you've left me. It's incredible and I am so thankful. THANK YOU! What did you think of episode 476 and episode 477? It was breath-taking and really well-done. I can't wait for the finale next week. And if I didn't mention it already, this fanfiction will only be around 12 chapters long, almost like a manga volume. Enjoy this chapter!

* * *

 **SARADA: SPRING LIGHTNING**

 _ **chapter four - Sharingan**_

Before Sarada knew it, she had been training with Tsunade for two weeks. Her taijutsu skills improved and she could gather a limited amount of chakra in her fist, but the hardest part and the one the young girl couldn't master was releasing it against a target. The Sannin hadn't expected her to be a prodigy and master it even faster than her mother, but it would've helped. They were delaying the new rescue missions until _their_ kid was trained and ready to fight. A few more weeks after twelve whole years weren't going to make a big difference. Tsunade couldn't let herself hope... she didn't want to be disappointed...

Sarada dropped to her knees exhausted. She needed a moment to catch her breath. "Tsunade-san, I was wondering..."

"What?"

"What does _Shannaro_ mean?"

The blonde Sannin's eyed lit up, wide and very blue. The corners of her mouth rose in a quick smile. The simple thought of Sakura Uchiha, her former student, made her grin. Her days with her fifteen years ago were such a joy. She was one hell of a motivated girl, doing her best to become more and more powerful, to make her dreams come true, to bring _that idiot_ back... She could see the same kind of motivation in the young _Uchiha_ 's eyes, the determination to bring them back. If there was anybody who could do that, it was Sarada, not her, not Kakashi, not Naruto.

"You said that when we first trained. _Shannaro_. Does it mean anything?" Curiosity sparked in the kid's eyes.

"Yes. It's something Sakura used to say, doesn't have a real meaning. It's something of hers, though, and reminds me of some good old times," the woman answered.

"What?"

Tsunade clenched her fist and shoved it down against the hard ground. The earthquake produced made shivers go down Sarada's back as she jumped backwards, trying to avoid falling in the crevasses. The blonde woman laughed. "Find Sakura. Find Sasuke. Let them tell you."

It wasn't as easy as she wished it were.

The Sannin walked towards her, hit a tree with the heel of her shoe, sending hit flying towards the young girl, whose eyes had lit up, red and high and mighty. _Sharingan... Naruto didn't tell me she got it_ , the woman thought. That small detail made a huge difference. "Sarada, pay attention. The Sharingan is called the _Mirror Eye_ ; its first and, in my opinion, most important function is copying." When she was sure she had the kid's attention, Tsunade loaded her fist again with a great amount of chakra and released it at once.

The girl's red eyes followed each moved.

"Your turn..."

Sarada clenched her fist. She wasn't sure whether she could manage to do it on the first try. Her body mirrored everything Tsunade had done, the same angles, the same tension between the muscles of her palm, the same target, and the same force. "Shannaro!"

She didn't make the tree blow up like her teacher did, but created a whole in it and in two more trees behind the first one. Neither she nor Tsunade believed at first.

Tsunade hadn't expected her to be a prodigy of some sort or to master the technique faster than anybody else before her mother, but the young Uchiha might have had some potential. The Sannin frowned as a feeling of deja vu made something itch somewhere in her chest. She had felt the same about Naruto the first time she'd met him; she had refused to give him a chance, no matter who he had been or what he'd claimed, believing his dreams of becoming a Hokage to be futile. In the end, she started believing in his dreams of becoming a Hokage too. And it filled her heart with joy, starting believing in the Sarada Uchiha's dreams of finding her family, starting believing in her.

She was _their_ kid, after all. The greatest shinobi assets were mixed up between her genes: one of the strongest Kekkei Genkai from her father, enhanced chakra control from her mother, and brains from both. Perhaps, they all really had a chance...

"How was it, Tsunade-san? I think I did it," Sarada said, happiness and hope sparkling in her eyes as they returned to their usual black. If the girl ever doubted herself, all those thoughts left her and she was ready to keep going.

The blonde woman nodded. "It's a good start. Do it again with the Sharingan, then try without it." She omitted to tell her not to overexert herself on purpose, knowing the girl wouldn't listen. Anyways, she was there for Sarada if the kid needed help.

Looking over the girl's practice for the next few hours - the girl was doing better each time she tried - Tsunade thought about what were the next things they had to do. After training was over, she'd go to Naruto and Kakashi and ask the latter help Sarada with the Sharingan. She was the eye's only user left, beside her father, if he was still... The woman chased that thought away; Sasuke wasn't that stupid to die and let the poor kid alone and neither was Sakura. Kakashi had lost his Sharingan years ago, but then again he was the only one that could teach Sarada anything about it. Besides, he was anyways going to help her with a jutsu or two.

Before she had met Naruto, Tsunade used to have a habit of playing with her necklace, the one that had killed her brother and her boyfriend before the beginning of the world, and after she'd given it to the yellow-haired ninja she'd broken that habit. Even so, looking at Sarada Uchiha, she found her hand searching for the black stone that was once around her neck and was unable to realize why. The Sannin wondered whether it was a bad feeling... about more death... or a fuel for her hope that the girl could bring Sasuke and Sakura back.

"Shannaro," the young Uchiha yelled after a punch that made the ground crack and dust spread all around her. Before the day was over, she'd started saying it more and more, because it suited her. It was something of her mom's, something meant for her, just like the red eyes were things left by her dad's for her to use. They weren't there, but they were with her. They weren't there, but, oh, they were.


End file.
